On April 1, 2023, I started my first round of the 100 Days of Code Challenge. I started because I wanted more consistency in my coding study. Although I intended to code consistently at the start of 2023, I wasn’t happy with my progress. When I heard of 100 Days of Code and all the good things other people said about it, I decided to try it myself.
During the next 100 days, I spent at least an hour a day coding. I missed one day, but as per the challenge rules I made up for it with at least 2 hours on the day before.
I started off by trying to build apps with Flask, which I had been having trouble with for a while. With the help of ChatGPT, I was able to finish some basic web apps (ecommerce shop, small databases). Once I felt that I understood it, I moved to Django.
I learned Django through YouTube tutorials from mid-April to late May and built a hotel reservation system in the process.
In late May, I came across Scrimba. People seemed to rave about it, and the price was reasonable, so I signed up. I figured it was a great way to build my frontend skills. I used Scrimba and Scrimba projects to satisfy my 100 Days of Code requirements until the end of the round.
During those 100 days, I built these projects:
Coding as a Habit
The biggest thing that the 100 Days of Code Challenge did for me was to make learning to code 1 hour a day a habit. I started to see my hour of coding as an obligation in a good way. I pushed myself to make sure that I coded an hour a day no matter what.
So now coding has become a habit in my life. If I don’t spend an hour a day coding something or learning something, I feel like I am letting myself down, and I feel a compulsion to do some kind of coding until I hit that hour.
Ability to Code
I also learned that with just an hour a day, you can make rapid progress in building projects. Especially if you’re a beginner and the projects aren’t too complex.
I started learning Django in mid-April, and within six weeks of just an hour or so of coding each day, I was able to build a whole hotel reservation app. While this is far from production ready, I am proud that I went from being totally intimidated by Django to building this about a month.
Other Projects After 100 Days
The moment of 100 Days of Code continued even after the challenge ended. Other projects I have since built include:After my first round of 100 Days of Code, I actually found some freelance work that has involved coding with Python. I am now able to spend several hours a day learning web scraping frameworks and scraping data on a real project. This has been a great experience, and I now feel comfortable working with Python's main web scraping tools.
On December 5, I decided to start my second round of 100 Days of Code. I liked the structure and the fact that I was always on Twitter tweeting about my progress. I hope this will inspire other new coders who are looking to start their 100 Days challenge.